Trained Owlbears with the caravan?

[Gluttony]

Hey there. My players, currently in Hungry Storm (near the end of it), came across a Hungry Predators caravan encounter, specifically the "Trio of Snowy Owlbears" kind. Normally such an encounter is supposed to be a fight for the caravan, but the PCs immediately declared that they would tame the monsters.

(As I note, though these are 'Snowy Owlbears' I've ruled that they'll have no difficulty surviving in warmer climates. They just happen to be resistant to conditions of extreme cold.)

It would be difficult task, but I couldn't think of any reason that it would be impossible, so I've allowed it. I explained to them what it says in the beastiary, that they can be trained as guardians, but never fully domesticated. They said that was fine, and that they'd probably need to set up a base of operations once they reached Minkai and it would be good to have Owlbear guards.

They've correctly predicted the bit about a headquarters in Minkai, and I'm inclined to allow this to work, but I need a bit of inspiration for the difficulty of actually getting the Owlbears there. I imagine it'd make their journey more difficult, especially with regards to passing through Ordu-Aganhei in Forest of Spirits. And while the party are skilled enough at handling animals to keep things in order, none of the caravan NPCs really are, so they'd probably have to hire a trainer (or two, or three) when they reach the city, since I down they'll be able to take three owlbears with them into the House of Withered Blossoms. The players are willing to pay the trainers' costs though.

So as I've said, I basically need some ideas of ways to spice up the fact that they're travelling with a trio of Owlbears. Especially in Hungry Storm, since they won't have had the opportunity to hire trainers yet.

[xebeche]

My first reaction it to consider the cost/benefit relationship. You may have to spend time rebuilding or creating new encounters. This could take attention away from encounters that could be more fun. Of course, the opposite might be true.

[Gluttony]

I think if they're willing to put in the time, effort, and gold to train Owlbear guards, then they should get the benefit. I expect the final battle of Tide of Honour will go a bit easier with the Owlbears on their side, but I'm not going to essentially make their cool achievement pointless by making everything just as tough either way.

And I don't plan on having the Owlbears help them too much during travel time. I imagine that training takes a while, and so they won't be able to follow simple commands until later anyways.

[Timothy Hanson]

Just off the top of my head:

One of the Owl Bears runs away and they need to go looking for it

The Owl Bears break into the food supply and eat a good amount, and now their are some angry hungry people that would like to speak to them

Maybe a tribe sees the Owl Bears as Holy and starts stalking the caravan

The Owl Bears eat some horses, or the owl bears are trained to be used as horses, maybe adding some speed to the caravan (or slowing it down in the case of eaten horses).